Why The Heirloom
Nature Journal?
Because your family’s special moments outdoors should be preserved as a keepsake
What a Nature Journal Should Be
In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. ~ Charlotte Mason
Your child’s nature journal should be of the highest quality. For it is an archive of your special times outdoors, a chronicle of your child’s observations, thoughts, and drawings. You will cherish it as a memento of how you immersed your children in God’s creation.
My Story
of nature journaling done poorly
When I look over my children’s nature journals from twenty years ago, I’m touched to see the familiar depictions of landscapes, plants, and animals we encountered on our nature excursions. It takes me back. It reminds of the things I did right.
However, one of my regrets is the kinds of books I chose for our nature journals. Although I always used the highest quality art supplies, I didn’t apply that principle to their nature notebooks. And now I have beautiful artwork, thoughtful sketches, interesting insights, all captured inside the pages of unsightly notebooks.
Our beautiful nature journaling looked lackluster then, and it looks lackluster now all because I failed to invest in the right kind of nature journal~ a journal with the right binding, correct paper weight, manageable size, and appropriate page count.
Your Story
of nature journaling done well
When you look over your children’s nature journals you will experience a sense of satisfaction at the beautiful chronicles of your moments outdoors, bound in a book that is as beautiful as God’s creation, and as lovely as your children’s thoughts and drawings.
Your nature journal will be made to last a lifetime or four. This beautiful keepsake will grow into a treasure for years to come, reminding you and your children of all the wonderful places you went and the interesting items in nature your family discovered.
The features of
Your Heirloom nature journal
Nature Journaling Makes Apologia Science Even More Fun!
Secure Binding
An exercise book with stiff covers serves for a nature diary, but care is necessary in choosing paper that answers both for writing and brush drawing. ~ Charlotte Mason
Your nature journals will have the highest quality book binding to treasure for many generations.
I never put much thought into a quality journal. We used spiral bound, sketchbooks, blank books…all low quality and uninspiring. In a word. They were cheap. They were not created to last a lifetime. And yet, still I have them because of the treasures contained inside those cheap bindings.
You won’t make the mistake I did.
Quality Paper
The note-books are a source of pride and joy, and are freely illustrated with drawings (brushwork) of twig, flower, insect, etc. ~ Charlotte Mason
Your nature journal has the premier acid-free paper that is thick enough to handle any messy medium out on the field or back at home. The integrity of the page won’t be compromised no matter how wet it gets.
Although my children did use watercolor on the pages of their journals, those particular pages are warped and bled through to the other side.
Your children’s watercolors will look brilliant from the moment they touch the page into the distant future.
Manageable Size
The children keep a dated record of what they see in their nature note-books, which are left to their management and not corrected. ~ Charlotte Mason
Your children’s journals will be the perfect size for small hands, yet large enough to capture those special moments out of doors. They are light and durable, able to withstand life on the trail.
The canvas size is just right. No matter how big or small the drawing, each page will look complete and well done. The sense of success and accomplishment will grow their confidence in nature journaling, encouraging the habit of observation and appreciation of creation. How wonderful it will be when journaling is done for the day and everyone feels a sense of satisfaction.
Our journals were all letter sized. When recording their nature discoveries, my little ones spent time and effort using whatever art skills they had acquired up to that time. At the end of the day, each of their pages usually had one small drawing on it. A leaf, a bird, an interesting nut.
Sadly, each intricate drawing was dwarfed by a huge amount of white space. At the end of the day, their work felt incomplete.
Their important work looked unfinished on the overlarge page.
The size of the journal made it look as if my children’s heartfelt effort was less than it really was.
Appropriate Page Count
Let them once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight and habit through life.
~ Charlotte Mason
Your journal will have just enough pages to complete in a year. You and your children will feel a sense of accomplishment with their completed journals. Every year they will start with a new journal ~ a fresh start, a world of possibilities with more mature thoughts and drawings.
Our giant sketchbooks were packed with more pages than any child or adult could be expected to fill in a single year, or even several years.
Once a week or twice a month, my children made heartfelt entries in their big, cheap journals. But at the end of each year, we experienced another elusive disappointment.
There were too many pages and so many pages were left undone.
This brought a feeling of incompleteness, of incompetence.
A nature journal should last for one year of nature study. The Heirloom Nature Journals have just the right number of pages for any child to complete in a year.
Because a child’s art abilities improve, and their interests change, a new journal enables the child to express their maturing personality and the essence of who God made them to be from year to year.
Grab your nature study tools bundle!
This all-in-one bundle has everything you need
for hours of exploration, fun, and learning for one child.
Here’s what you get:
You CAN do nature study well
our child will value nature journaling with the highest quality journal and art mediums
Your nature journal will inspire your children
Your nature journal will be beautiful, just as God’s creation is, just as your child’s work is